Art

World Press Photo 2017

DEC/2017

After beign showcased in Barcelona, Madrid hosted the most renowned photojournalism exhibition worldwide: the winning photos of the World Press Photo, a sample of critical contents on current affairs that generates public opinion and concentrates more than 3 million people.

The 2017 edition saw 80,408 images entered in the competition by 5,034 photographers from 125 countries (with a representation of 222 Spanish photographers), of which the jury selected 143.

The Turkish photographer Burhan Ozbilici, of the Associated Press news agency, signed the winning photograph: “An Assassination in Turkey”, the image of the killer of the Russian ambassador in Ankara, with the lifeless body of the diplomat, Andrei Karlov, lying on the floor. The snapshot was published on the front page of The New York Times newspaper and in the words of the jury “reflects the explosion of hate in our times; every time you see it you are shaken".

There were four Spanish photographers among the winners: Francis Pérez, awarded first prize in the “Nature” category with the photograph “Caretta Caretta Trapped”, which shows a sea turtle on the coast of Tenerife entangled in a fishing net. Jaime Rojo, third-prize winner in the same “Nature” category with “Monarchs In The Snow”, an image showing dozens of butterflies lying lifeless in Michoacán, Mexico, after a snow storm. Santi Palacios, second-prize winner in the “Contemporary Issues” category with “Left Alone”, the image of a Nigerian girl crying next to her brother over the death of their mother on board an NGO rescue boat in July 2016. Carla Tramullas, first-prize winner in the “Immersive Storytelling” category in the Digital Storytelling Contest with the piece “The Dig" on the voluble scenario of human relations.

The migratory crisis remained the prominent topic of the competition, as is political conflict, human mobility, the influence of technology on connectivity or information traffic and the impact of humans on the environment.

The photos which have won are annually displayed in more than 80 cities of 40 countries.